SA teachers ditch classes to go shopping on paydays: report

A study by the Council for Development and Enterprise has revealed that students in South Africa lose as much as 40% of learning time each year because teachers cut classes.

Titled Teacher Professional Standards for South Africa: The Road to Better Performance, Development and Accountability, the study said that the loss of learning time was due to a weak teacher assessment policy – the Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS).

The City Press reported that under the current assessment model, teachers were getting performance points simply for attending staff meetings.

“Teachers go shopping on paydays. They are doing extra jobs while they are full-time teachers,” an education expert who has knowledge of the report, but who has asked not to be named, told City Press.

The SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) in 2013 proposed that the Quality Management System (QMS) replace IQMS. “Until Sadtu has signed it off, it cannot be implemented. It has been watered down by government because of politics,” the expert said.

The report comes out at a time when South Africa’s education system is under scrutiny, often reported as one of the world’s worst.